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Bellum omnium contra omnes

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Pic of the day, part i: Scenes from the life of David, by Hans Sebald Beham

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People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Roger Clemens did not lie to congress. Kinda surprised me when I heard that. Sounded like he said he didn’t do steroids. But he did. That is what everyone has heard. That’s what everyone believes.

Maybe everyone is wrong. Maybe they aren’t but maybe they are. Never say you know when you weren’t there. I was not in the locker room with Mr. Clemens when he could have done them. I was nowhere near the scene at the time. I just don’t know the truth.

Now I can speculate, but how much of that speculation is simply what I want to think about someone rather than something that might be realistic. How much of the picture of Mr. Clemens is painted by not only my own wants but by sports commentary suffering from much the same problem that I suffer from, egoism?

Now he might have gotten one by the congress and the jury as well. But I never even thought until now that I could be wrong about this, that there could be any outcome but the one I wanted, the one I thought was right, the guilty verdict.

But if Roger Clemens did not lie, does that mean that someone else did? And how many other cases in the public eye have I acted as judge, jury, and executioner, in error? Many, one presumes, because guilt is always presumed until innocence is proven. But it is rarely proven enough for our liking. Hence a sense of disbelief. I could not find many who agreed with the jury. Could you? If we thought we could be wrong, would a sense of disbelief exist?

And a bigger question. Now that the trial is over, can his reputation be fixed? Or has he been damaged beyond repair by the circus that has surrounded him? I am of the belief that the man, with the trial behind him, should get the full measure of respect that a man who did what he did throughout his career should get.

The hall of fame should be a lock. He should again be spoken of alongside the greats of the game. Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Nolan Ryan now have another name to add to the absolute best the game has ever seen. Roger Clemens.

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Pic of the day, part ii: Braque Family Triptych (closed)

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A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Read a headline that made me giggle. “Romney says US can “learn a lot” from Wisconsin Governor.” I think he may have a point, but not the one he intended. I wonder if he meant that once you come to power, you can feel free to screw your people over publicly, subvert the system to work to your advantage, destroy the power of the people, and then when the people call you out and demand change, you can then use outside money to buy an election and subvert the will of the people a second time?

If that’s what he meant , he may well be right. And if he is right, does that mean that we should break out the pitchforks and mass on both Romney and Walker’s doorsteps and tar and feather the no good rat bastards? Because that is what learning that lesson makes me want to do.

Just saying…

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That’s it from here, America. G’night.

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Oil is at the highest prices they have been at in a long time. Brent crude is up over $121 a barrel. Why? Iran. They have cut oil supplies, having decided to cut off both French and British companies. They also happen to be in the middle of a major dispute with Israel. And Iran has warships in the Mediterranean off the coast of Syria. Close enough to help Assad in Syria if they like, or reach Israel should they feel the need.

Prices will continue to go up so long as they continue to act as provocatively as they are. Do we get to see the additional craziness of Iran shelling the citizens of Syria that are fighting against Assad, the man who is killing his own people for demanding anything even vaguely democratic?

Or shelling Israeli targets? One wonders.

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Pic of the day: The Revelation of St John: 4. The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, By Albrecht Durer

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There is a law that is under consideration in Virginia that says embryos will have the same rights as “other persons”. Really? They are people, with the same rights and responsibilities as “other persons?”

So, when will these lazy fucking Virginia embryos start pulling their own damned weight and get fucking jobs?

Fucking hippie embryo fucks.

To be serious tho, these god-damned self important right wing ass clowns with delusions of gender superiority are a pain in all moral Americans asses. Abortion has been around for thousands of years. You cannot legislate it away, or make people more moral with legislation. That has been tried. It has unquestionably failed. This will simply push abortion underground. You will kill young women for mistakes. You will kill your own daughters trying to save their children.

You cannot stop people from doing what they want to do. Morality cannot be legislated, you cannot make godless people fear God. No legislation can make any of that happen. None.

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Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99% of them are wrong.

H.L. Mencken

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Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson both belong in the Baseball hall of fame. They were both among the best players to ever play their sport. For that alone they belong in. How can any sport that doesn’t have it’s best individual performer at the games most basic level in it’s “Hall of Fame” be meaningful in any way whatsoever? Hitting is the most basic thing a player does in baseball, that and pitching. If Rose isn’t in the Hall, the hall itself, with it’s exclusion of him, becomes a meaningless institution.

And if Rose belongs in, how can you keep Joe Jackson out? He did the same thing, gambled on his team, and he unlike Rose admitted it. He said he did it, and was ashamed of it by all accounts. Should we not let this great player who was taken advantage of by gamblers much to his detriment into Baseballs hallowed halls where he belongs for his other feats on the diamond? How do you keep a man with a career average of .356, who struck out only 158 times in over 1300 career games out of the hall of fame?

Even if it was so, these guys are too good to be out of the hall of fame.

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I copied Jackson’s style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He’s the guy who made me a hitter.

Babe Ruth

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That’s it from here, America. G’night.

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Once a month or so, I clear out some of the content on my Running Commentary, Random Thoughts, and 12 Notes pages and place them here on the main page to make room for fresh content on those pages. This is the content from September 2011′s Random Thoughts. Enjoy!

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Sept 1st: Man, it was busy for a few hours at the job. Last day on this particular job though, they always try to squeeze the most out of you that they possibly can on that final day.

Sept 2nd: The Yankees have just moved into first place. So let’s anagram that: First Place/ Crap Filets/ Splice Fart/ It’s Elf Crap. Anagramming is always fun. Yankees in first place, just ahead of Crap Filets is more fun.

Plus, it’s more fun to write about that than to write about the fact that America created exactly zero jobs last month. Telling ya, these assholes don’t start hiring, they’re gonna have a full blown revolt on their hands. And no not the government, the corporations. They’re the assholes not hiring people, can’t blame government if the big gun employers would much rather work their current staffs to death than spend a few bucks and hire a few extra people, and make America and the economy stronger.

And yes, I just called the Boston Red SoxCrap Filets.

Sept 3rd: 14,000,000 people are out of work. The fed won’t help. The corporations won’t hire, they’re afraid of bringing their money to the states where it will be taxed. The President will give a speech meant to allay fears and bring hope to hopeful millions on Thursday. I personally don’t think it’ll matter. Not because he won’t say anything of worth, he will. What I think is that those who have a vested interest in seeing him fail will get their voices heard just as much as he will, dulling any positive effect.

Sept 4th: Nada

Sept 5th: My resume is updated, finally, it’s needed one for at least a few months now, which means that I can send out a fresh resume without having to worry about the yawning gap between jobs that existed there before. I have a number of jobs I’m going to send resumes to now. Maybe companies that ignored me before will take a second look at me now.

But first a sammich and some coffee. I’m hungry and I just came back from a grueling 10 mile hill run. Need fuel before I get back to looking for a job.

P.S. Sent 4 resumes, 2 to christie’s, 2 to other art houses.

Sept 6th: Happy to get a phone call from Christie’s today. Got an interview, on Thursday. With any luck I will get this (freelance) art handler job, and the nation will have one less person on unemployment. That’s how the unemployment issue gets resolved, one person at a time, and I’d be more than happy to remove myself from the list of those who require assistance to live in this clearly improperly functioning world.

Sept 7th: Rain, rain, go away, come on back when the ground dries the hell out. Srsly! I think we’ve had about 2 and a half feet of rain, or some such insane number. We really could use a friggin break from it.

Sept. 8th: It looks like I got a job today, I won’t say I’ve got it til I receive an offer, but I am expecting it, was told it should arrive within a week. Again it is a temp job. Again it is an on-call job. And it may take about 3 weeks to get all the paperwork taken care of, but it’s a job. I should really be happy though. The money when I work should be pretty damned good.

I will, after all, be working at Christie’s.

Pretty happy about that. Wanted this, really wanted this. Better to be a freelancer at a great place for good money, than being paid crap for crap work. Works for me. I just hope they expedite this as quickly as possible. The money situation here is really getting bad.

Sept 9th: The market tanked today, presumably because the rich bitches on Wall Street decided they don’t like paying their fair share like the president said, and pouted their way to a nearly 300 point loss. Makes me want to Anagram:Fucking Idiots/ Fuck It God, I Sin/ If Outing Dicks/ Dig Unfit Sicko/ Focusing It, Kid .

… OK it had to do with Eurozone crap as well. I have an agenda, and I wanted to anagram. Sue me.

Sept 10th: Nada… OK Not quite Nada, Not like I didn’t have any random thoughts today, I just never got to writing them down. Hey… wait a Minute… I just wrote that. Guess nada is in fact wrong! Go fig! That is awesomely awesome!

Sept 11th: Football, hockey and baseball as far as what I watched this day. Too damn many reminders of the events of 10 years ago out there for my liking. Media seems to almost fetishize the events of 9/11. Seems kinda creepy on their part. STOP OBSESSING DAMN YOU. You’ll freak out the easily freaked out people all over the nation. And we have a lot of those poor bastards now, leave ‘em be, they need a break. Poor sods.

Plus, the hockey, the Traverse City prospects tourney, has been a boatload of fun to watch. And the football was a big ball of WTF. Nothing I thought would happen happened, and the guys I thought would suck ALL had great days. Go fig. And the Yankees finally zarking won a game! LET’S GO YANKEES!

Sept 12th: Tom Brady threw for 517 yards. 517 friggin yards, including a 99 yarder to Wes Welker. I play in a league with my wife, Yahoo Fantasy football. I was winning, but she had both Brady and Welker, and Gronkowski. Going into Monday night, I was up by 30 or so points. By the end of the Patriots game I had lost by over 30 points! She whupped my butt! OH NOES! lulz.

And ya, there’s more going on than just fantasy sports. Rick Perry and his lunacy about Soc. Sec., the Jobs bill, Syria is still a hairy mess. I was just taken by how badly that one game did me in there.

Sept 13th: My left knee is absolutely kicking my ass. Damn thing keeps locking up on me, feels loose. I haven’t had problems this bad with this knee in years. This sucks. But to my credit I was still able to, through eating painkillers and a little patience, manage to get 7.6 miles in running today. Nice.

Sept 14th: Angel food ministries, a place I get food from once a month from on-line, and have since 2009, will not be doing food distribution this month. My wife did a little digging and it seems to be connected in some way to an investigation into improper use of funds on their part. Apparently this charity is in financial trouble, despite paying the family that runs it tons of money, and there have prior accusations of financial impropriety on their part before. Including firing people because there isn’t enough money coming in, and yet giving himself a raise.

Sept 15th: I’ve been keeping my eyes on the lockout over at Sotheby’s, because those guys gave me my first taste of freedom on the work-front, real honest to J.R. “Bob” Dobbs good people who deserve a break. And they aren’t getting it. Breaks my heart to see these guys being locked out of their jobs for 7 weeks, with no end in sight. I really hope things turn for these guys soon.

Sept. 16th: I got my paperwork from Christie’s today. I’ll be filling it out this weekend and getting it back to them just as soon as I can. It’s a “freelance” job, meaning I work when they need me, and don’t work when they don’t. But it’s busy season, so things should be jumping. I should be working full time until mid December at the very least. I hope. Wish me luck.

Sept. 17th: Dropped my cell phone while working yesterday. Dropped it into a toilet. A clean toilet, but a toilet nonetheless.

Joy! and other such statements.

It sat there for a while, unbeknownst to me, so the thing is probably toast. Fortunately my wife and I have a few older phones around here we can use. Tried one last night, and that phone was toast, and it took 45 minutes on the landline with sprint to figure it out. Just spent over 50 minutes on the landline trying to get a second one activated. The damn thing was so slow as to drive me AND the woman on the other end of the phone nuts. She handed me to someone else, who hung up on me.

Wouldn’t life be easier if we didn’t have these damn things in the first place?

Sept. 18th: Nada.

Sept. 19th: I took a drug test today, one that the company that wants to hire me as a temp asked me to take. No worries, the only drug I do now is Ibuprofen, and even there I do it in moderation. Sent a fax to them as well, with the signature on the pieces of paper that said I accepted the offer, and am allowing them to do a background check on me. Dislike that last bit, but companies are filled with idiocy of that variety, so I take it with a grain of salt. Getting closer and closer to working for good money again.

Still temp though, dammit. Ah well.

Sept. 20th: There is just not enough money in the bank. Gonna end up paying something late this month, and with the way things are going, it looks like it will be rent. Oh joy of joys.

I try dammit, I really do. Try to get work, try to pay my bills on time, but the lack of work, and the small amount of money I get from unemployment makes that impossible. I don’t blame anyone but myself though. Got myself here(kinda), I’ll get myself out(I hope.)

Sept. 21st: Yankees win, THEEEEEEEEEE YANKEES WIN! Swept two in a row from the Rays to claim the AL East crown. Dammit that was nice. At the beginning of the month the Red Sox were in first and people were talking about a Phillies/Red Sox world series. Now the Crap Filets(read above to figure it out) are battling for the wild card, and if their pitching keep going the way it is, they won’t make it. That gives me lulz.

Sept 22nd: Got asked to come into work by the people over at Kravet, after the assignment ended, the second time they’ve done that.

This time I don’t know that I can. I have things to do today, but they can be put off. The issue is, it will cost me money just to get in to do what they want me to do, but it’ll pay me less than sitting at home. It makes sense financially to sit home and get the extra days unemployment, it’ll pay more. But I hate not working. Hmmmmm….

They also want me in all of next week, and I am at this point waiting to hear back from the place that just hired me to freelance, that is paying more than 2x what Kravet is paying per hour, so I don’t want to commit to that either.

Decisions, decisions…

Sept 23rd: Had to decide against going to Kravet, as I am waiting on hearing from the other spot. And I had other things to do.

Sept. 24th: Just heard about some crap about some kids getting pepper sprayed at the occupy wall street thing. So watch the viddy. The cop that did it was apparently rogue, sprayed those kids for no reason, and got a cop as well. What an asshole! Someone’s gonna be doing desk duty for a while.

Sept 25th: Spent a lazy day watching football and baseball , worrying about my finances, and still not hearing about when to come in to my new job. Dammit these people sure are taking their damn sweet time with this shit. I want to go back to work.

I just have to be patient, just because I want and need something doesn’t mean they feel the same way about things.

Sept 26th: This occupy wall street thing is amazing. The more I see and hear about it the more I want to go. Looks like fun, looks like these people could really use some help, especially after the cops were such raging assholes at them. But they don’t need me, so I’ll sit here and make noise for’em. Better’n nothin. Might head out and go if I don’t hear from these idiots about work soon.

Sept. 27th: Nada from this job. So I called them, to find out what gives. Ends up the people in HR are dragging their feet, the boss man wants me in, but he can’t move until HR does. FUCK.

And what gives with the Yankees? I don’t mind making things hard for the Red Sox, but C’mon. These last 2 efforts looked horrible. They better put a better effort in tomorrow. Who wants to walk into the playoffs on a 4 game losing streak, especially with all 4 of those games being playoff contenders. Doesn’t look good I tell ya.

Finally heard from the guys at Sotheby’s. Kinda. Got an invite to a rally for the locked out Sotheby’s workers, on October 3rd. Might go if I’m not working by that point, and with the way these people are dragging their feet I might not be working next monday.

Sept. 28th: Most amazing final day of the regular season for major league baseball in memory. Red Sox, at the beginning of the month were in first place. Now? Out of the playoffs. Nice. Orioles made’em look horrible. Carl Crawford gets the goat horns in the game, not catching the ball in the bottom of the ninth, but Francona lost control of that team long before Crawford fucked up. lulz. Braves were almost as bad.

Sept. 29th: I want to go to Occupy wall street, but I don’t think I’ll be able to. Things to do. I have to go buy clothes for the job I start on Monday. Need black shirts it’s apparently the uni. Black shirt, black pants, black shoes. Fatass in black, that’ll be me.

Sept. 30th: Got into a twitter war with some jackass from bigjournalism, that bastion of conservative values (i.e. fuck the poor) today. Whooped up on him. Dumbass was not ready for someone on the left who is as clearly belligerent as I am. Belligerent and smarter. He was just not ready for someone who could stand toe to toe with him and spar on an equal footing. I’ll try to get him again soon. He’s an editor and story writer there. Note I didn’t say journalist. They don’t have journalists there, just fabricators of propaganda.

He needed to enlist several friends to fight his battles for him, and I fought them off as well. Easily I might add.

Enjoyed it. Thoroughly.

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With my eyes momentarily diverted from politics with the end of the drama of a potential government shutdown, thanks to some honest to J.R. “Bob” Dobbs concessions on each side of the political fence, my mind turned to sports today. It will turn back to government again soon enough, with the potential of the debt ceiling not being raised, but for today, it was all sports.

Well, mostly sports. I went food shopping and washed clothes, neither one of those are 5 minute operations. But I was able to watch The Yankees beat up on Red Sox, heard about the New York Rangers game that was played at the same time, and have been watching both the Lightning – Hurricanes game and a slew of baseball games on both MLB and the MLB eatra innings free preview, which is still going on, on Time Warner Cable.

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In a nutshell, the Yankee – Red Sox game was a back and forth struggle until the fifth inning, when Felix Doubrount gave up a 2 run homer around pesky’s pole. Read the reports on this one and you come away with the feeling that the game was about the Yankees hitting 4 home runs in the game. That was nice and all, but 4 2/3 innings worth of 3 hit ball after a shaky start from Yankee starting pitcher Ivan Nova made all the difference. This is a different game if David Robertson doesn’t come in and put out the fire in the bottom of the fifth, when he came in with two on and 1 out in the 5th.

So you can talk about Russell Martin hitting 2 blasts bringing the Yankees to Victory, but without Dave Robertson and the bullpen, it isn’t quite so easy.

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The Rangers game went on at the same time as the Yankee game, and as a consequence I missed it. Not that I wasn’t following it, I was, I just didn’t watch. I had the cell phone and I checked out the score as often as I could. Yer probably saying to yourself “why didn’t you just turn the game on?” I was not at home. Not my house, not my remote, not my call. ‘Nuff said.

I was with my brother and father talking about the Rangers. My dad hates Marian Gaborik, thinks he’s about as useful as legs on a fish. I think he’s better than that. He isn’t the great player ownership tried to tell us he was, but he isn’t bad. My brother James seems to think Brandon Prust is one of the best players on the team. Won’t disagree he is a catalyst, but he said that Prust lead the team in points. I had to check that out. He is actually 9th in points on the team, on a team that has no real flashy point a night players on it.

Prust is good, but be doesn’t lead the team, points-wise.

T’was a happy thing though, to find that My Rangers had won their game, and did their part to insure they made the playoffs, even if I didn’t get to watch the game. Now all they needed was for the Canes to lose later on…

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The hockey game I watched with the most interest was the Lightning – Hurricanes game. If the Canes won, they would take 8th place and a playoff birth and knock out the New York Rangers. I am a fan. Love my team, not crazy enough to…I dunno… pray for my team to win, or for the other team to lose. Prayer is more for important things, like loved ones in trouble and the like. So I wasn’t praying for the Canes to lose. Or for Tampa to win. Or for the Rangers to make the playoffs.

What I did was watch the game and hope things went my way. I saw the opening line up, and was unhappy to see that Mike Smith was the starting goalie for the Lightning. Roloson has been a damn fine goalie for the Lightning, and thought that starting Smith was a step down, and thought that signaled that the Lightning weren’t gonna push in this game.

Then I saw the first few minutes of the game, and liked what I saw. That Hurricanes team was playing tight, they were making mistakes on the ice that they haven’t made recently, the kind of mistakes that kill chances to win. First goal was by former Ranger Dominic Moore, then the Lightning scored 2 goals in just under 2 minutes.

The striking thing for me was that they weren’t great chances, they were shots, and that’s all they have to be, but still, to give up relatively easy goals in a game this important made it look like they were just too tight, too tense to get back in the game. They tried, they really did, They pulled within 2, but then gave up 2 empty net goals. The game might have been over in the first period, but the first empty netter by former Flyer winger Simon Gagne was the final nail in the Canes coffin.

The Final score was Lightning 6, Hurricanes 2. Rangers are the 8 seed in the Playoffs. It was rough but they made it!

I did not celebrate the Rangers making the playoffs until the final horn sounded. I did not raise my arms in victory until the game was over, no matter how much it looked like it was over 2 periods prior. And the celebration was a simple YES! and a fist pump. Enough celebrating, now I look forward to the first round playoff matchup between the Rangers and the Capitals.

Should be fun.

LET’S GO RANGERS!!!

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That’s it America. Go to sleep.

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I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn’t stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I’ve got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

Babe Ruth

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Tex

I watched my first baseball game of the year today. A game between the Yankees and the Phillies in Tampa at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The Yankees started the game with Bartolo Colon on the mound, trying to make a comeback in the majors after missing nearly 2 years due, as I recall, to a variety of injuries, including a major shoulder injury. He pitched well. He’s got a few pounds to lose, and he’s not exactly the Bartolo Colon of old, but he was good out there. After starting out a bit slow, he was hitting the gun with the fastball in the mid 90’s, and he was locating his pitches well.

(Almost) The entire Yankee 2011 starting offense played today. The one missing piece was Russell Martin, who is still out with an injury, he’s due back next week. Jorge Posada saw exactly one pitch, which he popped up. Since he was the DH, that was the end of his day. Gazoo … err … Franscisco Cervelli was good out there at the plate. He did yeoman’s work calling the game, and hit a run scoring double that plated Robby Cano (that’s what I recall anyway). Yankee prospect Jorge Vazquez absolutely crushed a shot deep to centerfield for the first home run of the exhibition season. Over the batter’s eye, easily a 450 foot shot.

Nice way to start the season, kid.

The Yankees lost the game 5-4 though, as a kid named Eric Wordekemper gave up a couple of laser shots to some good players out there, and it cost the Yankees 2 runs in the top of the 8th inning, after they had just clawed back to grab a one run lead in the bottom of the seventh. Most of the other pitchers out there for the Yankees were pretty damn good. Joba was damn good out there, as was Dave Robertson, and the kid Hector Noesi had a good inning out there as well.

It was a fun game, just because it was the first game of the year. It was great to watch live baseball again.

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There was a fantasy draft today. My wife and I both participated. We had two separate teams in an 8 team draft, Had fun doing it.

My wife drafted second, and went against convention and drafted Mark Teixeira. She may well have been able to get him in the second round, but she got Felix Hernandez in the second round, and I tell you this, the Mix of King Felix, and Tex in the first two rounds is pretty good.

Of course I think I did better with my first two pick. I drafted 4th, and got Carlos Gonzalez in the first round, and then landed Roy Halladay in the second round.

Petco Park

She asked my advice on a few picks, in general. I told her she should grab an outfielder in the fourth round, after getting the two aforementioned picks and Cliff Lee. She got Matt Holliday in the 4th round, I think that’s a decent pickup in that spot.

Not a lot out of the ordinary happened in this draft. I was happy to catch Adrian Gonzalez, the new Red Sox First baseman, at the 20th spot. He usually goes first round. There is the minor issue with him just coming back from shoulder surgery, but that doesn’t mean his numbers are going to drop, playing in that bandbox in beantown, even if he loses something because of his surgery, the size of Fenway, in comparison to the size of Petco Park, or whatever the name of that damn stadium in San Diego is this week, should play in his favor. And I don’t see his shoulder being an issue.

I took a flyer on Grady Sizemore on my last pick of the draft, 164th. I was surprised he fell that far, he is coming back from injury, but when Sizemore is on, he has one of the best bats in the league. And so far this year, he is going 40 picks earlier than that, so why not? And the pick before that I got Hideki Matsui cheap. The man still has it, and is good for 20 -25 Homers and 90 RBI’s, and that kind of production out of a 20th round pick, even in an 8 team draft, is nothing to sneeze at.

My wife made some other solid picks as well. She went out on a limb for a few players, getting the kid, the new closer from Atlanta, Kimbrel in the 13th round . If he give a performance like the one he gave towards the end of last year, she got an absolute steal in that spot. Juan Pierre fell all the way down in this draft, despite leading the league in stolen bases last year, and she got him with the 162nd pick in the draft. Nice. And she has 2/3rds of the starting outfield for the Detroit Tigers. Austin Jackson should have a monster year, run production wise, he’s got speed to burn, and a healthy Magglio Ordonez should be good for 25 homers and 100 RBI’s in that lineup.

You’d think she likes the Tigers hearing that. Not really. She’s a big Yankee fan, and has 4 starters from the offense on her team. Russell Martin, Tex, Derek, and Nick Swisher. Like I said, she’s got a good team.

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Had a fun baseball day today, America. I’ll write to you tomorrow.

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5 years, $ 22 to 24,000,000 a year. Derek… please, just stop, OK? You are a 36-year-old Shortstop coming off of the worst year of your career. One of your main claims to fame is being a real class act, the humble hard working guy.

It isn’t happening. So stop trying. I don’t see anyone willing to pay that kind of money. Certainly not the New York Yankees. They know that the amount of money your asking for is money NO ONE is willing to pay, so every time you toss out a ridiculous figure lie that they can sit back and giggle. And let me use that term again. NO ONE. Not Epstein in Boston, not your old manager Torre in L.A., not Cashman, no one.

Now, brothers and sisters, I am a life long Yankee fan. Been one since the days of Bill Sudakis, Ron Bloomberg and Fred “The Chicken” Stanley. I remember the bad old days when the team could not get out of it’s own way. I remember when things started to turn around during the mid 90’s, when Gene “stick” Michael built the guts of the team, getting Tino Martinez from the Mariners, trading Roberto Kelly to the Reds for Paul O’Neill, picking up Jimmy Key, David Cone, and getting Scott Brosius from the A’s. I remember the team building up with farm products, great players like Derek, Bernie , Jorge, and Mariano.

I remember and am grateful for the good times fellas, thank you, really. But how far does that thanks go, really? Do we pay to keep him a Yankee for the rest of his career as a way to say thanks? Absolutely! But for that much? C’mon, be serious. I know it’s a negotiation, and I know yer supposed to start out asking for more than your gonna get, but this is friggin ridiculous. $22 mill being the LOW number?

C’mon, Derek. Srsly, cut the shit. I don’t want to find out how good an everyday shortstop A-rod is because of you get all greedy. Be the captain, not just another businessman trying to fleece the fans.

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Viddy of the day: Cal Ripken interviewing Derek Jeter about work ethic.

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To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not remedy, and these the worst.

Charles Caleb Colton

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So the Broncos taped the 49ers practice before the game they played in London. So what. They suck. They lost the game they did this crap in, haven’t they paid enough? Well, no actually not, it IS wrong to do. Bad Broncos. Slap on the wrist is what they get, $50,000 fine for the coach.

But according to Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, the guy who did the taping got fired, and they didn’t use the tape. Now to be serious, it is indicative of just how far teams are willing to go to try to win, how desperate teams are to win that they would do this crap.

How to put this… In this day and age I find it incredibly unbelievable that if given information that could have ostensibly given them an advantage, any sports team would not use it. They very much sound like a team covering their asses here. I for one hope someone is doing something for the guy who got thrown under the bus here, former video director Steve Scarnecchia.

Not expecting it though. He may have been guilty as they say he is, but I for one, really doubt it. If McDaniel is really the innocent he claims to be, he would have reported Scarnecchia as soon as it happened. He didn’t. Guilty people and writers create stories. McDaniel isn’t a writer.

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Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.

Eric Hoffer

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Bad news for a good guy. Mike Modano looks like he may well be done. He is out indefinitely after getting hurt by the errant skate of R.J. Umberger of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Two guys skating trying to make a play on the puck, got tangled up, Umberger ended up twisting with one skate in the air, and it caught Mikey Mo on the wrist. and did tendon and nerve damage last night. He had surgery today, and it is reported that the surgery was in fact successful, but it is unknown how long Mikey Mo will be sidelined.

I for one hope Mike comes back quickly. He really is one of the good guys in all of sports, truly one of the most talented players to ever play the game, the highest scoring American born player of all time, playing in his 21st season for a perennial contender, it would really suck if his playing days ended like this.

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We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax.

Whitey Herzog

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It’s been a while since I’ve written about sports. I think the last time I did was during the Stanley cup, just before the finals. Well there’s a number of things going on out there, and I think it’s time I revisited the world of sports. In particular the MLB trading deadline.

Adam Dunn

Now, when you’re in the middle of a pennant race, and one of your star pitchers gets hurt like Jake Peavy did, it just makes sense to go out and get a starting pitcher at the deadline. Just like the Chicago White Sox did, when they got Edwin Jackson from the D-backs for a rook and a their top prospect. You don’t do much in the way of trading away your future, and you get someone who can give you innings as a starter, who has decent stuff, and can get guys out. Ya, Jackson has a high ERA, over 5 I believe, and he walks a lot of guys, but he isn’t too bad, so Ozzie Guillen should not have too much of an issue getting some good innings out of him. The White Sox pitchers don’t walk too many guys, so maybe whatever the White Sox Pitching coach is doing there will help Edwin Jackson out.

For all that I said above, the rumor du jour says Jackson isn’t finished moving, and should not unpack in Chicago. The White Sox may try to move Jackson to the Nationals for Adam Dunn. Dunn has improved his batting average each of the last three years, and is on pace for his highest career batting average, and is one of the leagues better power hitters, averaging 40 home runs a year over the last 6 years and looking like he will make it to that average again this year.

Now the move is no guarantee, since the White Sox have already given up their top farm guy, a pitcher by the name of Dan Hudson, and would only be willing to make the deal if they don’t have to trade away any more of their farm, on top of sending Jackson to the Nats to get him. Stay tuned to the MLB to keep up with all the up to the minute details on all the deals going down.

Then there is the deal the Nats already made, trading away their closer, Matt Capps to the Twins for catching prospect Willie Ramos. The Twins, with Mauer, their all star catcher, don’t really need Ramos anytime soon, and being in need of a closer, this was an easy trade for the Twins to make. Must’ve been slightly harder for the Nationals. Capps really is a very good closer. He was one of only 2 bright spots for the Pirates last year, before he was traded to the Nats, the other being Andrew McCutchen…

Enough about the Nationals. Let’s talk about the Big Money. Da Yankees. They make me ask a question.

Why?

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I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn’t stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I’ve got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

Babe Ruth

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Viddy of the day: Fox sports MLB weekend preview.

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Austin Kearns

I can almost see the need to pick up an Austin Kearns. He hits lefties and righties at about the same rate, .250 for lefties, .278 for righties, not great but respectable, you could always use another bat off of the bench, and it only costs you a player to be named later, or cash? No sweat. But I have to ask, why Lance Berkman? The man has lost a step, he is not hitting like he used to, his average has been dipping the last few years, his power numbers are dropping.

And he, I am guessing from everything I’ve heard loves playing in Texas. He was born and raised there, played his college ball at Rice University, in Houston, was drafted by and has played his entire career for the Houston Astros. So we know he fits in well there. Now he had a list of teams he wanted to be traded to, and apparently the top one was the Yankees, so apparently he does want to win rather than just play out the string in Houston. The man wants a ring, and putting the Yankees on your short list for a trade is a good way to get that ring. That much I like.

Now how well does he fit in with the Yankees as a player? We have a first baseman, Mark Teixeira, so no go there. He would obviously play the DH role, but what does that do? It means you bench whatever regular player you were thinking of giving the half day off to, because it has been, for those who aren’t Yankee fans, the practice of Yankee manager Joe Girardi to give his stars half days off by putting them in at DH. He’s spelled Jeter, A-Rod, and Posada that way when those guys got nicked up or just needed a little rest.

Get Berkman and you lose that, and get in return a $14,000,000 dollar contract with a 34 year old player on the downside of his career. As much as Berkman may still be a force… in Houston, I don’t know that that matters in New York. But one thing is for sure, we’ll find out what happens. He’s a Yankee now, like it or not.

Ok, Lance can play outfield too, he has plenty of experience out there. And he’s a very good outfielder. Gotta grant him that much. And maybe those faltering numbers of his will improve in the bandbox that is Yankee stadium.

And maybe he fits in just fine here in the big city, too!

Good Luck Lance, I hope this works out for both you and the Yankees. You’re one of us now. Welcome to the Club!

The other deals? Not really big news. Oswalt is not the same guy he was a few years ago, and the Phillies found that out during his start yesterday. Miguel Tejada? He can help the Padres sow up the NL west, but they had that more or less anyway. Same type of deal with Cristian Guzman signing with the Rangers in the AL Central. I don’t know that Podsednik in L.A. is that big of a deal. I like Scotty Pods, but the Dodgers will need more than him to make up the 7 games they are down to the Padres.

But there is talk of Joe Torre and the Dodgers going after Ted Lilly, and they really could use the pitching help out in L.A. John Ely and Vinny Padilla aren’t getting the job done out there, and that is why the Lilly deal makes sense for the Dodgers.

And on that note, I am done. Have a good night America, and LET’S GO YANKEES!